Scars of the Broken Mirror: Carlota's story
by Talespinner69
Summary: The Casagrandes, in order to put some terrible times they've gone through behind them, move out of Great Lakes City and in with their relatives, the Santiagos, over in Royal Woods. But Carlota is unsure of what to make of all the changes her family's going through. (Sequel to Scars of the Broken Mirror: Aggro's story) (Story 3 in the 'Broken Mirror scars' anthology)
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Scars of the Broken Mirror: Carlota's Story

Chapter one: A fresh start

She sat in the seat directly behind the driver's seat, in which her Grandpa Hector sat as he drove the family van. With a bored, somber look, she gazed out the window as she watched various other vehicles drive on by. Given everything that has happened to her and her family within recent events, Carlota Casagrande had no idea what to think, what to feel. And that was just with the fact that both of her parents and her younger brother Carlos Jr. were all killed, claimed by the stoked, racist anger of Great Lakes City.

Now Carlota and what remained of her family, which consisted of both of her grandparents, her six-year-old brother Carl and two-year-old brother Carlitos, were all moving away from Great Lakes City.

With both her father Carlos Sr. being killed and her Grandpa Hector's store being wrecked during the events of the Great Lakes City riots, Carlota and her family simply could not afford to continue living there. Besides which, there were just too many painful memories for her and her remaining family to continue living there anyway, not to mention there was still that lingering bit of racism throughout the city. If there was any light in all of this overwhelming volume of darkness, it was that the Casagrandes are moving to Royal Woods, where their extended relatives the Santiagos lived.

As a matter of fact, Carlota's Aunt Maria was currently moving into a two-story house in the same neighborhood in which her current one-story house was located. It's a house that's two houses away from the current one, so things were hardly going to change for Maria and her children Bobby and Ronnie Anne, who are Carlota's cousins, in terms of scenery. Sadly, the same bit in regards to hardly any change in scenery could not be said about Carlota and her family, though.

"And so when I saw the advertisement on the website for that storefront in the local shopping square in Royal Woods, that's when I decided to jump on the chance while it was still there," Hector said as he was telling his wife and grandchildren a story as he drove, excitement in his tone, "The Casagrande bodega is going to live again!"

"Oh, that's great, Hector," Rosa, the grandmother of the Casagrande siblings (as well as Bobby and Ronnie Anne), remarked, obviously happy for her husband's success, "It was such a blow to our family when the old store was wrecked by rioters during the riots." Breathing a sigh of relief, Rosa continued, "Thank goodness for this, Hector. The fact that you'll be able to start over with your store is a sign that our family's fortunes are beginning to turn around."

Carl made a comment showing that he was on the same page as his grandparents, but Carlota drowned it out, still blankly and boredly staring out the window. The stress of all that has happened to her family as of late was not doing Carlota any favors. The seventeen-year-old Casagrande girl had not been able to get much sleep, and she hardly ate anything in the weeks leading up to her family moving to Royal Woods; Carlota noticed when she weighed herself earlier this morning that she was down ten pounds from the last time she checked her weight, although she still had a noticeably full body.

As the Casagrande family van, pulling a moving trailer behind it, entered Royal Woods city limits, Rosa said, "Carlota, dear, you haven't said a word since before we left Great Lakes City." Having heard someone say her name out loud, Carlota was snapped out of her thoughts, making her look up and over to her grandmother, whose head was turned to see her. "Are you okay, young lady?" asked the older Hispanic woman, mildly but noticeably concerned.

"Rosa, our granddaughter is still trying to get used to how life is going to be like for not just herself, but for all of us," Hector remarked to his wife of many years, "We ought to give her all the time that she needs." Rosa relented, agreeing with her husband, and decided to give Carlota some space. The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl was grateful for this; thank goodness that her grandfather was not the kind to try and pry when it was clear that such actions wouldn't be all that appreciated, and would also tell others to back off if need be.

As Carlota continued to look blankly and boredly out the window, she heard her younger brother Carl talk to their younger brother Carlitos. Judging by what she was hearing, Carl was showing some of his playing cards to the two-year-old member of the family. "So yeah, little bro," Carl said to his younger brother, "Bobby is going down when I play against him after we get to our new place. I mean, with all that I got in my deck, I'd like to see him try to figure out how to overcome all of this!"

The two-year-old Casagrande boy had no idea what his older brother was talking about, but he happily clapped a few times to show that whatever Carl said, he agreed with it. Carlota barely understood anything from what Carl was talking about, but hearing him talk without a care in the world, as well as hearing Carlitos giggle cutely and clap happily, made Carlota feel at ease, feel relaxed, and feel just a little bit happier than she has for the past few months.

It wasn't all that much of a boost in happiness, though.

* * *

It took the Casagrandes about twenty minutes after they first entered Royal Woods to actually find the new two-story residence of the Santiagos. Eventually, with Rosa calling Maria and getting the address, Hector drove to their destination, making a beeline for their new home. When they arrived, they saw a moving van, its rear door opened all the way, parked in the lot in front of the house's garage, with Maria's car and the car belonging to her son Bobby parked along the sidewalk in front of the house.

As Hector pulled up, parking behind Bobby's car, a trio of teenagers came walking over. Hector recognized one of them as his and Rosa's grandson Bobby. As for the other two, it took him a few brief moments, but Hector remembered them as Allison and Aggro Ace, the twin seventeen-year-old grandniece and grandnephew of his old war buddy Sejuani. "Guys!" Bobby said as he greeted his family, "About time you all got here!"

As the Santiago teen proceeded to hug his relatives one by one, Hector said, "It's great to see you too, my boy." Turning to regard the Ace twins, the older Casagrande man asked, "I take it that you two are helping with the move?"

"Well my family and I are friends with Bobby and his folks," Aggro remarked, "Which includes all of you guys. It wouldn't do if my family didn't at least offer to help." With a casual shrug, the male Ace twin continued, "Besides, as it just so happens, the house that you guys are going to be living in is located right next door to where my family lives."

"We're going to be next-door neighbors?" Carl asked in a curious tone as he looked up at Aggro.

"Aye, little one," Allison said, "Our respective clans will be living alongside one another. Since there is already some alliance between the houses of Ace and Santiago, I doubt that there is going to be too much difficulty."

"That sounds wonderful, dear," Rosa remarked, "Oh, I hope Lalo's barking won't cause too much trouble while we live next to each other."

With a curious and mildly confused look on his face, Aggro said, "Lalo's barking? You guys brought a dog with you?"

"Oh, you and your sister didn't see either Lalo or Sergio when you came by while my grandparents and cousins still lived in Great Lakes City," Bobby began to explain, "Yeah, Lalo is their pet Mastiff and Sergio is their pet parrot."

"What kind of mastiff is Lalo?" Aggro asked, a mildly concerned look on his face, "Because if he's a Tibetan Mastiff like Allison's dog Fenrir…"

"Oh no, Lalo's a regular Mastiff," Bobby said to his friend, "No need to worry."

Within a few moments, the Casagrandes, with assistance from Bobby and the Ace twins, got Lalo and Sergio into the new Santiago-Casagrande residence. Sergio is your typical multi-colored parrot, while Lalo is a regular Mastiff with yellowish fur, brown ears and a brownish muzzle. When the pets were escorted inside, Lalo spotted Ronnie Anne, the younger sister of Bobby, and dashed right to her, nearly knocking her over upon contact and proceeding to coat her face in slobber.

"Ah!" the Hispanic tomboy exclaimed, "Down, Lalo!"

As the Casagrandes and the teens helping them entered the house, they saw Maria come out from the area that was presumably the kitchen, accompanied by two girls. Carlota recognized the black-clad teen girl as Allison and Aggro's fifteen-year-old younger sister Amy, but the girl that looked roughly Ronnie Anne's age was not someone Carlota recognized. The girl had long white hair, wore a long-sleeved blouse with an orange tie, the blouse and tie resembling an ensemble worn by Japanese schoolgirls, a dark bluish skirt that matched the theme of the blouse and tie, somewhat baggy socks and a pair of brown shoes.

"Someone help me!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed as Lalo leaned more into her, his nonstop licking and furious tail wagging clear signs that he didn't know that he was putting the Hispanic tomboy in a tight spot, "Lalo's going to knock me over at this rate!"

"Wow, I didn't know your relatives as a big dog as well, Ronnie Anne," the white-haired girl remarked, "He looks almost as big as Fenrir."

"Just grab his collar and try to pull him away, Astrid!" Ronnie Anne nearly screamed. Carlota watched as the white-haired girl, apparently named Astrid, grabbed ahold of Lalo's collar and tried to pull him away from Ronnie Anne. Not only did Astrid fail to drag the Mastiff away in the slightest, but all her efforts accomplished was getting Lalo to turn and face her. After he looked at her for a few seconds, Lalo proceeded to do to Astrid what he had been doing to Ronnie Anne.

"Ah! Help me!" the white-haired girl cried out as she was knocked to the floor by the overly friendly Mastiff, leaving her helpless in fending off the affectionate and large dog.

Allison, sighing in a mildly bored tone, walked over, grabbed the back of Lalo's collar with one hand, and yanked him away from the downed Astrid rather handily. Seeing the female Ace twin so easily handle a large dog like Lalo surprised the Casagrandes. "Wow, young lady," Rosa said after she turned around from having finished setting up Sergio's cage, "It usually takes more than one person to handle Lalo when he gets like that."

"I believe it's already been mentioned that I myself also own a large dog," Alison replied. Taking a quick look at Lalo, Allison added, "In fact, I'd say that Fenrir is slightly bigger than this one. Probably not by much, though; I'd say no more than two inches taller."

"Well we ought to get Lalo into the backyard so that he won't get in the way," Maria remarked to her parents, "Because not only are there still things in the moving van that we need to move into the house, but there's also whatever you guys brought with you from Great Lakes City."

"You got a point, Aunt Maria," Carl remarked as he looked up to his aunt, "The last thing we need while we're trying to move in is for a big dog to get in our way." After Allison took Lalo to the screen door in the kitchen that opened into the backyard and made Lalo go outside, everyone proceeded to go about the business of getting the Santaigos and Casagrandes moved in.

* * *

That evening, as the Santaigos and Casagrandes were settling in, Carlota was sitting in the living room on the sofa, idly flipping through a fashion magazine of some kind, while Bobby and Carl played a card game nearby, with Ronnie Anne and Carlitos watching. The family just had a few pizzas delivered and had eaten well, and spirits were overall higher for the Santiago-Casagrande family as a whole that they've been for a while.

…Only Carlota was not in an overall high mood. She was still monotone, somber, resigned.

As Carl lost the current game to Bobby, Ronnie Anne looked over to Carlota while Bobby and Carl gathered up their respective cards to go again. "…Hey, Carlota," Ronnie Anne began in a concerned tone as she walked up to where Carlota was sitting, "You doing okay, cous?"

"Oh, Nie-Nie," Bobby said, "Grandpa Hector said that Carlota's not feeling well, and that we all ought to leave her be until she feels better."

"Oh, okay," Ronnie Anne replied to her older brother. Turning back around to face Carlota, the Hispanic tomboy said, "Sorry." Ronnie Anne then moved back to where she was prior to walking over to Carlota. With her younger cousin leaving her alone, Carlota was free to resume what she was doing.

…Which was pretty much nothing at all.

* * *

As the Santiago-Casagrande family proceeded to get ready for bed, Lalo apparently decided that it would be a good idea for him to get into a barking match with Fenrir, as both large dogs were in their respective family's backyards at the same time. This prompted Hector to shoo Lalo back into the Santiago-Casagrande house while Allison came out into the Ace family backyard to make her dog follow her back into the Ace house. With the issue of two large dogs barking up a storm quelled, the two families, as well as a few houses within the immediate vicinity, would be able to get to sleep reasonably well.

Sure enough, everyone in that part of Royal Woods' residential area, as well as everyone in the residential area for that matter, soon fell asleep. However, the reprieve of slumber did not come so easily for Carlota. The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl was lying awake in bed, staring up at the ceiling in her bedroom, which had yet to be decorated to her liking; most of her stuff was still in boxes, but that would be a task handled tomorrow.

Carlota thought about all that has happened to her family over the course of the past few months; her mother and younger brother Carlos Jr. getting killed in the violence at the Hispanic Heritage Month festival, her father getting killed during the events of the Great Lakes City Riots, her grandfather's store being wrecked by rioters during the same aforementioned riots…it was quite a lot for any one person to deal with. And yet the powers that be saw fit to have Carlota and her family be the ones to have those experiences.

Carlota, as she rolled onto her right side in bed, kept wondering the same question that she had been wondering ever since her mother and younger brother lost their lives to the racially stoked violence of their old home city.

…Why?

Why her? Why her family? Why did things keep on getting worse and worse for them before things started to get better, not to mention why did things only started to get better for them when they finally had enough and decided to move out of Great Lakes City altogether? Move out of the city that Carlota had known all her life, the city in which she was born and raised?

The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl had no answers for all of her questions of why, couldn't think of anything reasonable to explain why fate decided that it would be all right and proper to just up and crap all over her and her family. Carlota hated it. She hated all of the hell that had been thrown in her family's general direction, hated that life had been rather cruel to her as of late, hated that she had been forced to leave behind the only life that she had ever known, hated that she wouldn't be seeing either of her parents or her thirteen-year-old brother ever again.

Carlota simply hated it.

* * *

The next morning, the teens and children of the Santiago-Casagrande family were having breakfast, which consisted of leftover pizza from the previous night and whatever snacks they got since the move, since the Casagrandes couldn't bring any food with them, and Maria saw that most of the food that she packed had gone bad so she decided to toss it. The teens and children weren't going to complain; after all, they have pizza.

"If you think my Great Ogre is bad, little dude," Bobby said to Carl as they and the others ate at the table, "Then wait until you see some of the links that my bud Aggro has, such as his Borrelsword and his BLS-SOC."

"You mean to tell me that there are more of those links out there that are _worse_ than your Great Ogre?!" Carl asked, looking like he just saw a monster that he was scared of get killed and eaten by a bigger, scarier monster.

"You haven't even seen my _Giant_ Ogre yet," Bobby replied, drawing a moan of complaint out of the six-year-old Casagrande boy. "But we can take care of that sort of business later," Bobby remarked as he continued, "The lot of us have some work ahead of us today!"

"Oh yeah," Carl remarked, his spirits picking up a bit, "Grandpa Hector is going to check out that storefront that he scooped up. Not to mention how there are still a few boxes to unpack." Turning to face Ronnie Anne, Carl said, "Yo cous, are there still any of those fancy Kit-kats that your Asian friend brought over yesterday?"

"If there are, I don't know where they are," Ronnie Anne replied, then with a mild hint of annoyance in her tone added, "And her name's Astrid."

"There's still some of the other stuff Aggro and the rest of his folks brought over to us," Bobby pointed out to his younger cousin, "Not to mention the fact that my girlfriend Lori and her siblings will be coming over sometime today to see us. Lori said that they'll be bringing some stuff for us, too."

The two boys continued to talk for a bit, with Ronnie Anne saying something about making sure that someone in a wheelchair can get through the front door. But Carlota was continuing to drown out everything that Bobby, Ronnie Anne and Carl was saying, along with little Carlitos cheerfully giggling as he tried eating a bit of pizza topping. The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl was still withdrawn, still a shell of her former self, still being quiet.

Ever so quiet.

END, SCARS OF THE BROKEN MIRROR: CARLOTA'S STORY CHAPTER ONE

Author's notes:

…Well what did you expect? After all, Carlota _did_ lose both of her parents and a younger brother, her grandfather lost the business that he had for so long (although it is getting rebooted in the next chapter), she had been subjected to harsh treatment from others due to her heritage, and it took her family moving out of the city that she was born and raised in to escape all of that hell. How can anyone in Carlota's shoes _not_ be something of a mess after all of that?

Anyway, the next chapter will be seeing the Santiago-Casagrande teens and children help their grandfather look at and clean up the storefront that will be turned into the revived bodega. The next chapter will also see some of the Loud siblings make an appearance; this means that Carlota will be meeting up with a certain white-haired boy who had made a positive impact on her life over the last couple of months.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Scars of the Broken Mirror: Carlota's Story

Chapter two: More than one return

After they had what would have to do for breakfast, the teens and children of the Santiago-Casagrande family made their way to a small store located in the local shopping square. The five of them were impressed with this small storefront their Grandpa Hector had scooped up; it was actually a little bit bigger than the bodega that he had back in Great Lakes City. The five of them could tell this even though they hadn't stepped into the store itself as of yet; they were standing outside the store, where they had met up with their Grandpa Hector.

"So kiddies," Hector said to his grandchildren, a hint of smug pride in his tone, as he gestured to the store that would be turned into his new bodega, "What do you all think of my new store?"

"It's pretty big, Grandpa Hector," Carl remarked, with Carlitos using sign language to say the exact same thing as his older brother.

"You should easily be able to display more product here than you could have back in the old store," Bobby said. Turning to face his younger sister, Bobby continued, "Wouldn't you agree, Nie-Nie?"

Pointing to the bottom of the store's front door, Ronnie Anne said, "Can someone who uses a wheelchair to get around in get over that threshold? Because we might have to fix that if the answer's no."

"Oh yeah, you got a point," Bobby remarked. Turning to face his grandfather, Bobby said, "Yeah, Grandpa Hector, we might have to fix what Ronnie Anne pointed out to make the store more wheelchair friendly."

"I take it that you and Ronnie Anne are friends with someone who needs a wheelchair?" Hector asked in a curious tone, "Because the both of you have brought it up multiple times."

At that prompting, Bobby proceeded to explain everything to his grandfather; Leni, the younger sister of Bobby's girlfriend Lori, was caught up in the massive accident on the main highway between Royal Woods and Great Lakes City. Although Leni survived (she's one of the very few people (six out of sixty-two) caught up in that accident to do so), she was still terribly injured; the accident had also stripped Leni of the use of her legs, requiring her to use a wheelchair to get around from here on out. "…So yeah, Grandpa," Bobby said as he finished his explanation, "It'd be great if we kept Lori's sister and others in her situation in mind when it comes to taking a look at your new store."

"I see," Hector remarked as he considered his oldest grandson's words, "…Yeah, we're going to have to look into whether or not people in wheelchairs can get over that threshold. If not, then we'll do some work to fix the problem."

* * *

Hector led his five grandchildren into the currently empty storefront, ushering them into the store after he unlocked it (he got the key to the store earlier before he met his grandchildren there). As soon as the Santiago-Casagrande family entered, they saw the current state of the empty store; it was dark, there were some shelves but they were all bare and somewhat askew, there were a few empty small boxes that once held multiple candy bars each, and Ronnie Anne even let out a yelp of surprise when she and Carl spotted a live raccoon in the store.

"Yeah, we're going to have to shoo that rascal out before we can get to work cleaning up the place," Hector remarked, "But other than that, yeah. What do you all think?"

"It could use a bit of a clean-up," Carl remarked, "But it's nothing too outrageous. If the lot of us work together, I bet that we can get this place ready for you to start selling stock out of it before the day is out, Grandpa Hector." Carlitos gave a thumbs-up to his grandfather, showing that he agreed with Carl.

Turning to regard his younger sister, Bobby said, "You ready to do your part to help get the store up and running, Nie-Nie?"

"If I can get Astrid's older brother to use that Japanese longbow of his to eighty-six that raccoon first, then sure," Ronnie Anne replied, still looking mildly rattled.

"We don't need Aggro to kill the raccoon," Bobby remarked in a casual 'come on, dude' kind of tone, "We can just shoo it out like Grandpa Hector said."

…

As it turned out, there were several raccoons in the store, nine to be exact, and the Santiago-Casagrandes, without anything they could use to chase the raccoons out like a broom or something similar, were forced to leave temporarily. Bobby made a call, and a few minutes later, his girlfriend Lori, accompanied by her younger sisters Lynn and Luna, showed up. Lori had one of her golf clubs that she used when her varsity golf team had games, Lynn had a metal baseball bat, and Luna had a hockey stick; Lynn said that there was extra in the light gray rental van that the girls had used to get to the shopping square. The Louds were using it until Rita, the matriarch of the family, could track down a permanent replacement for the long-wrecked Vanzilla.

Bobby, Carlota and the Loud girls, all armed with various sports equipment, went into the store with the intent to chase the raccoons out. The teens succeeded in chasing all of them out, and without getting bitten or scratched in the process. It was Luna who spotted a hole in the wall, along the floor near the backdoor of the store; it was clear that the hole is how the raccoons were able to get into the store in the first place. Bobby and Lynn worked together to move an old filing cabinet over the hole to prevent more raccoons from getting in, covering said hole completely. A professional would have to come by later to fix the hole properly, but the filing cabinet would do the job just fine in the meantime.

With Lori, Luna and Lynn helping out, the Santiago-Casagrandes were able to fix things up and straighten up the place quicker than Carl had estimated. But then again, he was only considering himself, his siblings, his cousins and Hector; nine pairs of hands could do more than six in the same span of time, especially considering how one of those pairs of hands was that of a two-year-old, so they couldn't/didn't do much of anything. By midafternoon, the store had been cleaned up, and in good of a shape as it could be without professionals fixing things that needed fixing; the shelving units also needed to be straightened, but that could wait until later.

As the teens and kids talked in the store proper, Hector came walking out from the back room where the filing cabinet had been used to block that hole in the wall. "I just got off the phone with the person I'm renting the store space from," Hector said, "I told him about the hole and how it let raccoons into the store, and he said he'll cover costs for having it fixed."

"Well that's good," Luna remarked to the older Casagrande man, "It'd blow big time if you were forced to cover the cost of having that hole fixed." The Loud girls took their leave soon after, leaving the Santiago-Casagrandes alone.

Checking the time on his watch, Hector said, "It's getting close to dinner. I say we head back home for the night and continue work tomorrow. We kind of have to wait until tomorrow anyway, because the repair guy can't come until first thing tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, I'm starving," Ronnie Anne remarked as she and the rest of them proceeded to make their way out of the store, but not before Hector checked to make sure the place was secure so that no one would break in, even though there was, as Lori would say, literally nothing of value for any potential thief to steal.

* * *

Unlike dinner the previous night and breakfast earlier today, the Santiago-Casagrandes had home-cooked food to eat for dinner tonight, with Rosa personally seeing to the matter. "So yeah," Carl said as the family had dinner, "There were nine raccoons in Grandpa Hector's new store when we first got there. Bobby got his girlfriend and some of her sisters to come by with sports stuff to help us chase the raccoons out the backdoor."

"Dios mio," Rosa remarked, "That sounds dangerous." Turning to face her husband, Rosa asked, "Why didn't you call an exterminator or someone like that to do the job for you, Hector?"

"It would have cost me more than I can afford right now," Hector replied, "I looked it up, and having a professional come by to handle the raccoons would have cost me upwards of three-hundred dollars!"

"I bet that Astrid's older brother would have done it if we offered him five bucks a head," Ronnie Anne remarked casually before taking a sip of her drink, "That would have been about forty-five dollars total."

"For the last time, Nie-Nie, we weren't going to pay Aggro to use his yumi longbow to kill the raccoons," Bobby commented, the barest hint of exasperation in his tone, "And I highly doubt that he'd want to take a job of killing animals like that, anyway."

"Actually, Bobby," Maria began as she checked something on her phone, "Royal Woods law classifies raccoons as a pest animal, and that if a property owner finds any raccoons on his or her property, they're legally allowed to get rid of the raccoons by any means, up to and including killing them. Granted, there are some restrictions, such as it's illegal to drown one or unleash a dog to attack and kill it, but most other options that you can think of to get rid of raccoons via killing them are actually legal." Placing her phone down, Maria added, "However, I have to commend you, Carlota and your friends for getting rid of all of the raccoons at your grandfather's new store in a non-lethal manner."

"Thanks, mom," Bobby replied before eating another forkful of his grandmother's cooking. The rest of dinner went by without much more conversation, although Carl said that he was going to look through his cards to see if he could figure out a way to beat Bobby in a game. The Santiago teen laughed in a good-natured manner, saying that he's looking forward to the challenge.

* * *

The following day, the Santiago-Casagrande teens and children were back at Hector's new store, helping with straightening up some of the shelves in the store proper while Hector observed the hired professional fix the hole in the wall in the backroom. "There," Carl said as he and Bobby finished pushing a shelving unit around so that it lined up with the others, "That ought to do it."

"Now all Grandpa Hector has to do is order merchandise to stock the shelves with," Bobby remarked. Looking around the store, Bobby said as he eyed some freezer cases in the back, "He might also want to make sure those freezer cases are up and running before he officially opens the store for business."

"Speaking of stuff to stock shelves and freezers with, I'm kind of peckish right now," Ronnie Anne remarked, "Some of us ought to make a snack run."

"Don't worry about that," Bobby said to his younger sister, "I already made some arrangements for-" Bobby was cut off when he, Ronnie Anne and their cousins all heard the store's front door open, followed by Lori's voice calling out for Bobby. As such, the Santiago-Casagrande teens and children saw Lori enter the store, accompanied by her younger brother Lincoln. Both Louds were carrying some shopping bags of snacks.

"Wow, so this is your grandpa's new store, Ronnie Anne?" Lincoln asked as he and Lori handed the bags they had off to Ronnie Anne and Bobby respectively.

"I suppose your sisters already told you about the raccoons from yesterday, right?" the Hispanic tomboy replied as she received the snacks from the sole Loud boy. Jerking a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the store's backroom, Ronnie Anne continued, "Grandpa Hector's got a professional in the backroom right now, fixing the hole in the wall that the raccoons used to get into the store in the first place."

As he looked around the store from where he stood, Lincoln remarked, "…I remember when I first entered your grandpa's old store back in Great Lakes City, after I had just run away and first arrived in the city. He was surprisingly nice to me, given that I had just met him at the time." Ceasing to look around, Lincoln turned his attention back to Ronnie Anne and said, "The last time that I was in your grandpa's old store was when the riots started. Lori's friend who was there at the time helped me get inside the apartment building so that I can be safe." The sole Loud boy decided that it'd be wise not to say _why_ he was outside when the riots started.

"And I still literally owe Allison big time for saving you," Lori said to her younger brother, getting him to turn to face her, "But that's beside the point for now." Looking up from Lincoln to face Bobby, Lori said, "Boo-Boo Bear, if you and your family need anything, please don't hesitate to ask. We're literally just a phone call away."

"Thanks, babe," Bobby replied, "And I'd say the same to you. I mean, your family is going through a bit right now, what with helping Leni adjust to life with using a wheelchair, as well as the fact that you guys recently had to lay your father to rest."

"Thanks, Bobby," Lori said, "And as a matter of fact, Leni's taking things surprisingly well." With a slight giggle, Lori continued, "In fact, on every occasion where Leni went to Allison's place to see Aggro ever since she was stuck in a wheelchair, Aggro's pet fox hopped up into her lap to lay down. It's literally one of the cutest things ever."

"Yeah, Aggro told me about that," Bobby remarked, "He even took a picture of it at one point." After that, the teens and kids decided to take a bit of a break, with everyone seemingly enjoying themselves. For her part, Carlota watched and listened as her brothers and cousins had a good time talking to the Louds. The jovial atmosphere was even enough to make the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl crack a smile. It was a small one, though.

But still one all the same.

* * *

"So yeah, Lincoln," Ronnie Anne remarked as everyone relaxed a bit, "Some of the girls I know at school still want to properly apologize to Rusty. We're going to have to figure out something to make that happen."

"Rusty's been pretty okay with accepting apologies from people who wronged him while they were duped by Chandler," Lincoln said, "I'm sure that all they have to do is go up to Rusty and say sorry for their part in giving him hell."

"…Yeah, that's easier said than done," Ronnie Anne remarked, a hint of embarrassment in her tone, "Some of the girls, myself included, decided to get their displeasure across as harshly as possible. And by that I mean that a lot of us, again myself included, roughed Rusty up a bit."

With a mildly grim look of understanding on his face, Lincoln said, "Yeah, I can see that, given what Chandler had everyone believing at the time."

"Wait a minute," Carl interjected in a mildly confused tone, getting both eleven-year-olds to turn and face him, "I'm lost here. Who's this Chandler _puta_ that you two are talking about?"

"He was some manipulative jerk that did all sorts of bad stuff while having everyone duped into believing he was a prime example of a good kid," Ronnie Anne began explaining to her younger cousin, "Some of the worst things he did included getting Lincoln's friend Rusty expelled from school and dating my friend Astrid, essentially trapping her in a relationship she didn't want to be in at all."

"Wow, he really does sound like a right proper bastard," Carl remarked.

"Don't worry, Carl," Lincoln said, "The school found out the truth and reinstated Rusty. Also, Ronnie Anne's friend is no longer dating Chandler."

"I'm guessing that he got into some major trouble?" Carl asked.

"Actually, Chandler was killed in a home invasion," Ronnie Anne explained, "Although if I recall correctly, the men who broke into Chandler's family's house claimed that he was dead already when they found him."

"I think they're lying to try to cover their tracks," Lincoln said before taking a sip of a can of soda he was drinking from.

"That literally sounds like something men like them would do," Lori stated as she was checking something on her phone, "Kill an innocent child then lie about how he was already dead. How low can men like them get?"

"A fair number of the kids at me and Lincoln's school wouldn't necessarily agree with the part about Chandler being innocent," Ronnie Anne remarked, "But yeah, all of that other stuff sounds good to-"

"Oh geez," Lori said as she put her phone away, interrupting Ronnie Anne in the process, "Lincoln, we need to head home now. It's getting close to when mom starts dinner."

"Right," Lincoln replied as he and Lori got up, said good-bye to the Santiago-Casagrandes, and then took their leave.

With Lori and Lincoln gone, the Santiago-Casagrandes were able to continue their conversation as a family-only affair. "That Chandler fellow sounds like he was quite the piece of work," Carl remarked, "Still, I think him getting killed in a home invasion is a bit too much."

"Speaking of home invasions," Bobby remarked, "Police here in Royal Woods are still looking into the case of that Frank McMillen fellow being killed in his own home close to two weeks ago." Rolling his shoulders a bit before continuing, Bobby added, "The police failed to collect any evidence from the scene, but they say that there's clear signs that it was premeditated."

"Given what the guy did," Ronnie Anne began, "Coupled with the fact that he actually got away with it because he was let off in court, there could be any number of people who could have killed the man. The RWPD have their work cut out for them here."

As Bobby began to argue a few points with his younger sister, Carlota listened to the conversation. Someone doing what that Frank McMillen person did and getting away with it, then Frank was found dead in his own home, with clear signs that he was killed by someone? Why, Carlota would swear, if she didn't know any better, that Royal Woods has its own Broken Mirror, just like Great Lakes City.

That man sounds to Carlota like someone that Broken Mirror would go after.

END, SCARS OF THE BROKEN MIRROR: CARLOTA'S STORY CHAPTER TWO

Author's notes:

I was originally intending for Carlota and her brothers to meet up with _all_ of the Loud siblings (possibly aside from Lily who would have been at home napping), but I couldn't figure out how to pull it off without making it look contrived. Anyway, I know that 'Jeers for fears' redeemed Chandler, but I finished 'Broken Mirror: New War' sometime before that episode came out, and the 'Scars of the Broken Mirror' series stories are all set after 'New War', so I have to keep all of that in mind.

However, I do have a thing or two in mind planned for the next chapter that will explore the character of post-Jeers for fears Chandler to some extent. In fact, if any of you paid close attention to a bit in the second-to-last chapter of 'New War', then you'll see that the idea I'm going to touch upon in the next chapter of this story is something that I've already took a look at, at least to some extent. And there's always the fact that I've already been working with a post-Jeers for fears Chandler in some of my other works, one or two having yet to be released.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Scars of the Broken Mirror: Carlota's Story

Chapter three: Not so different

The day following Lori and Lincoln meeting up with the Santiago-Casagrandes at Hector's new store started off normally enough. With Maria gearing up for a shift at Royal Woods General, Hector having headed straight to his new store to get a few last-minute things squared away, and Rosa keeping herself busy with making sure there was enough ingredients for dinner that night, this left Carlota to help get little Carlitos, who is a two-year-old, dressed. Carlota, the only remaining person available who's closest to being a mother figure, ended up helping to get her toddler brother dressed in a white shirt and red shorts, an ensemble that has become the norm for the young Casagrande boy.

With the toddler Casagrande dressed for the day, Carlota decided that she had time to head into the kitchen to grab something to eat, as she had yet to grab anything today. Right before the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl could cross the doorway into the kitchen, she heard her younger cousin Ronnie Anne call out to her. "Yo, Carlota," Ronnie Anne said, catching Carlota mildly by surprise and making her turn around to face her, "You're coming with me to Lincoln's family's place after breakfast."

Carlota, able to tell that her younger cousin wasn't technically asking her to go with her, replied by giving the Hispanic tomboy a curious and mildly confused look. Ronnie Anne could tell from Carlota's look that she would have to explain things to her older cousin. "Look, Carlota," Ronnie Anne began, "Seeing that you and everyone else moved here into Royal Woods, you guys ought to get to know some of the people that Bobby and I interact with on the regular basis. That also includes the Louds, seeing as how Bobby is dating Lori, and Lincoln and I are da-Err, I mean, Lincoln and I hang out with each other regularly." With a slight but noticeable amount of blushing on her face, Ronnie Anne said, "Yes, that is totally what I mean whenever I talk about myself and Lincoln."

Carlota could tell from her younger cousin's slight slip that she saw Lincoln as someone more important than a simple friend, and the look she gave Ronnie Anne made it clear she had a very good idea about what the younger girl almost said. Ronnie Anne recognized that look right away. "Oh, don't you give me that this early in the morning, Carlota!" the Hispanic tomboy snapped in an insisting tone, clearly looking embarrassed. Trying to get ahold of herself, Ronnie Anne said, "Besides, I figured that you may want to see how Lincoln's doing, seeing as how you, Grandpa Hector and the rest of you guys helped him out while he lived in Great Lakes City as a runaway." Looking up at her older cousin, Ronnie Anne continued, "You…do remember that, don't you?"

How could Carlota forget? Forget the sweet boy who looked innocent enough, who was only looking for work so he could earn money to support himself, who Carlota's family eventually took in after it was revealed that he had no home in the city, and he was living in an abandoned building that had been condemned by the city a few hours prior to the Casagrandes taking in the runaway white-haired boy?

…The boy that helped to brighten things up for Carlota and her family when her mother and younger brother, then later her father as well, were claimed by the stoked, racist anger of the city? No, there's no way that Carlota could ever forget Lincoln.

"Well, I know you've already met Lincoln and Lori," Ronnie Anne began, bringing Carlota out of her thoughts, "Seeing as how they were at Grandpa Hector's currently empty store yesterday. And you also met Luna and Lynn, seeing as how they assisted with chasing out the raccoons that we found in the store when Grandpa Hector first opened it." With a gentle shake of her head, Ronnie Anne continued, "But you've yet to meet the _rest_ of Lincoln's siblings. In fact, we might want to bring Carl and Carlitos along as well, seeing as how they're going to have to see all of them at some point anyway."

Carlota could tell that her younger cousin is only trying to make introductions between their family and the Louds, to start both groups off on the right track; Bobby had tried something similar with introducing Carlota and her brothers to the Aces, and things went well enough until Allison's dog Fenrir decided to show that he was capable of being just as friendly as Lalo. The result was Carl being knocked over onto his butt while the Tibetan Mastiff affectionately licked his face, wagging his tail furiously the whole time.

At least the Louds don't have any big, powerful pets like Lalo or Fenrir for Carlota and her brothers to worry about. At least that's what Ronnie Anne said when Carl complained how the neighbor's dog got some slobber on his favorite red jacket so that it had to go through the wash when everyone got back home from the Ace's place. Figuring that heading out to meet some of the people who lived in the neighborhood would be a nice thing, along with the fact that she did value the sole Loud boy as a close friend of hers, Carlota relented to Ronnie Anne's plan to head over to the Loud residence to meet Lincoln, Lori and all of their sisters. After all, Carlota and her family now lived next door to the Aces, and they themselves were rather diverse in terms of what kind of people they are, not to mention how they, similar to the Casagrandes, also own a big friendly dog.

How bad could the Louds be?

* * *

Carlota got her answer the instant that she, her brothers and both cousins walked through the front door of the Loud residence, and were subjected to a bucket-of-water-over-the-door prank, dousing them in cold water. "Wow," a young teen girl who Carlota didn't recognize, this girl having a long brown ponytail, said after the Santiago-Casagrandes were soaked by the prank, "I wasn't expecting to give someone a wet reception." After chuckling a bit, the young teen girl said, "Get it?"

"Luan, you better not have pranked Bobby and his family!" Lori yelled from somewhere within the Loud family house.

"She did, Lori!" Ronnie Anne yelled back. Carlota watched as the young teen girl, apparently identified as Luan, run up the stairs to the second floor before Lori came into the main area of the house, practically stomping with anger.

"Boo-Boo Bear, I am so sorry about what my sister did," Lori said to Bobby in an apologetic tone, "Please don't be mad."

"It's not the first time I've been pranked by Luan," Bobby replied in an understanding tone, "Although I wish it wasn't the first thing that happened to my cousins when they came over. Also, could we get some towels?" Lori nodded in understanding before turning around to go and find some towels. As Lori left to find the towels, a young black-haired girl who Carlota didn't recognize came walking in.

Looking up at most of the Santiago-Casagrandes, the black-haired girl said in something of a monotone, "I'm guessing that your first exposure to Loud family-brand hospitality was to be subjected to one of my older sister Luan's pranks?" Gently shaking her head before continuing, the black-haired girl said, "Sigh. Sorry about that. Someone needs to talk to Luan about that."

"I'm surprised that someone hasn't throttled Luan for her pranking habit yet, Lucy," Ronnie Anne said to the young black-haired girl.

"She almost was throttled last April Fool's, Ronnie Anne," the black haired girl, who Carlota learned was called Lucy, replied, "After Luan pulled a prank on Lori's friend Allison, Luan didn't pull any more pranks that day."

"She pulled a prank on Allison? Seriously?" Ronnie Anne asked. After Lucy simply nodded twice in the affirmative, Ronnie Anne scoffed a bit before continuing, "I knew it. That older sister of yours is nothing short of insane. Err, no offence."

"None taken," Lucy replied in an understanding manner, "And Allison going, as Argent puts it, 'full Viking-rage mode' after being subjected to one of Luan's April fool's pranks finally put an end to us living in fear of Luan on April first."

"Allison didn't really hurt your sister, did she little dude?" Bobby asked the gothic Loud sister, a hint of concern in his tone.

"No, Lori was able to get Allison to calm down before she actually got ahold of Luan," Lucy confirmed, "The experience still gave Luan a lot to consider, though."

After Lucy finished her explanation, Lori came back with some towels, handing them to Bobby, Ronnie Anne and their cousins. "Sorry again about Luan pulling that prank on you guys, Boo-Boo Bear," Lori said in an apologetic tone as Bobby and the others dried themselves off.

"I'm guessing that Luan is still trying to cope with what happened to your dad, and this is what she is doing," Bobby remarked.

With a shrug, Lori replied, "I guess that's as good of an explanation for Luan's increased pranking as of late as I've ever heard." Gesturing to Bobby, Ronnie Anne and their cousins, Lori asked, "So Bobby, I'm guessing that you guys came over because you and Ronnie Anne wanted to have your cousins get to know me and the rest of my siblings?"

"Well babe," Bobby began, "Seeing as how the two of us talk to each other all the time, along with how Nie-Nie is rather sweet on the bro-"

"Bobby!" Ronnie Anne practically exclaimed in an embarrassed tone, blushing with embarrassment as her exclamation interrupted her older brother.

"Yeah, the point is that our two families interact with each other regularly," Bobby said to his girlfriend, "So Ronnie Anne and I both figured that Carlota and the boys ought to get to know all of you."

"Ronnie Anne said that you guys have a dog that's way smaller than either Lalo or the dog that Bobby's friend's sister owns," Carl remarked as he looked up at Lori, "Is that true?" Lori nodded in the affirmative to Carl's question before she proceeded to get everyone to meet the rest of the Loud siblings.

* * *

Carlota stood with her younger brothers and her cousins in the Loud family backyard with Lori and all of her siblings. Aside from Lori herself, Carlota saw Luna and Lynn from the raccoon job, the young teen identified as Luan and the black-haired girl identified as Lucy. In addition to the aforementioned girls, Carlota saw that there was also a short brown-haired girl wearing glasses, a blonde-haired girl wearing a pink dress, a second blond-haired girl wearing a red had and a pair of overalls, and a wheelchair-bound girl with long pale blonde hair and wearing a seafoam green dress; a blonde-haired baby sat on the wheelchair-bound girl's lap.

There was also Lincoln, of course.

"So yeah, guys," Lori said to her siblings, "For those of you who have not yet met them, these are Bobby and Ronnie Anne's cousins Carlota, Carl and Carlitos." To the Casagrandes, Lori said, "Carlota, boys, my sister with the glasses is Lisa, the twins are Lola and Lana, my sister in the wheelchair is Leni, and that's Lily sitting on Leni's lap."

"Umm, I have a question for you two," Carl said as he gestured to the twins, "Which one of you is Lola and which one is Lana?"

"I'm Lola and this is Lana," the girl in the pink dress said while jerking a thumb at her twin sister. Gently bouncing some of her hair with her right hand, Lola continued with a hint of smug pride in her tone, "You know, a lot of people say that I'm the pretty twin."

"…" After blankly staring at Lola for a few seconds, Carl said to her while pointing to Lana, "I guess that makes her the smarter one between the two of you?"

As some of the older Loud sisters began to snicker a bit, Lola angrily snapped at Carl, "Are you saying that I'm stupid?!"

"Geez," Carl remarked, "Calm down, puta. I'm only trying to figure things out here." Lola proceeded to demand what the word Carl just called her means while Ronnie Anne laughed, claiming that puta means princess in Spanish before Bobby told his sister off for trying to fool Lola while also telling Carl off for insulting Lola.

…

As things continued in the Loud family backyard, everyone broke off into groups to talk to each other; one such group consisted of Carlota, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne. "Everyone at school is still talking about Chandler's death," Ronnie Anne said to Lincoln as they talked while Carlota pretty much just stood there to watch and listen, "But then again, given how Chandler died, along with what he was found out to have done in the weeks and months leading up to his death, it's still kind of a hot button topic."

"I think news about him getting Rusty expelled and how he did it is part of the reason why," the sole Loud boy remarked before taking a sip from the can of cola he was drinking, "I mean, even with Rusty being reinstated after the truth came out, a lot of the other kids at school still talk about it, although I think it's mostly because of how a lot of them feel really guilty about the way that they treated Rusty prior to his undeserved expulsion."

"On a more personal matter," Ronnie Anne said as she continued, "I didn't like at all how Chandler had been able to trap Astrid into dating him. Seriously, that day at the carnival where Astrid was taken away in an ambulance because she ate something with too much sugar for her that Chandler got her, even though he was told beforehand that Astrid can't eat something with too much sugar or have too much sugar in general, I had never before wanted to punch someone in the face so badly." Scoffing in a mildly annoyed tone, the Hispanic tomboy added, "A damn shame that I can't give Chandler a pounding now."

"Seeing as how those seven men who broke into his folk's house kind of beat everyone else to the punch on that matter, it kind of goes without saying," Lincoln remarked, before taking another sip of his cola.

"Yeah, those men who broke in with the apparent intent to kill everyone in Chandler's family because his dad pissed them off really badly," Ronnie Anne said. Scoffing a bit, Ronnie Anne continued, "They even have the nerve to claim that that Chandler was already dead when they found him."

"Given a lot of the facts of the case," Lincoln began, "I'm highly doubting that any of those men are telling the truth when it comes to Chandler already being dead when they found him."

"You know, Lincoln," Ronnie Anne remarked, "Those men claiming that Chandler was already dead when they found him is a topic of debate at school, with a few theories being tossed around in regards to it."

Giving his more than a friend a curious look, Lincoln asked, "What do you mean?"

"Some of the kids at school say that the men are right," Ronnie Anne explained, "That Chandler actually committed suicide out of sheer guilt over all of the bad crap that he pulled over the last couple of months. Others claim that one of the men who broke in actually did kill Chandler but tried to make it look like a suicide in some harebrained idea to try and garner some degree of plausible innocence." Putting a hand on her hip, Ronnie Anne said, "Penelope even came up with the theory that the vigilante from Great Lakes City, Broken Mirror, came to Royal Woods after somehow hearing about what Chandler, and that said vigilante is the one who killed Chandler."

Lincoln's eyes widened a bit out of surprise. "That…" the sole Loud boy began, "…Sounds like it's too much to believe."

"Well Penelope was keen on reading every news article that came out of Great Lakes City concerning Broken Mirror when they were coming out," Ronnie Anne said, "And with some people believing that Broken Mirror is somehow responsible for the death of that McMillen guy who was responsible for that massive accident on the main highway, Penelope's belief on the matter has only strengthened." Shrugging a bit, Ronnie Anne added, "But then again, Penelope's always had a habit of connecting things that can't really be connected, so she's probably just being weird, as per usual."

Sighing a bit, Lincoln said, "Yeah, that sounds right about her." Gently shaking his head, Lincoln continued, "Still, it's bad about what happened to Chandler. I mean, regardless of what he did, don't you think that him being dead for it is a bit much?"

"Mmm, I guess," the Hispanic tomboy replied with another shrug.

"I mean, regardless of what he did, Chandler was still a kid no older than either of us," the sole Loud boy went on, "A kid with many of the same interests as us. Going to the arcade, hanging out with friends, eating pizza, and so-on. In fact, from what I've been able to gather about him from his cousin Kara when I last spoke to her, Chandler was rather similar to myself, minus his conceited attitude and lack of siblings."

With a mildly confused look of disgust on her face, Ronnie Anne said, "She actually compared Chandler to _you_, Lincoln?"

"Now hold on there, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln replied, "Kara raised a few good points. In fact, when I think about it, there's a fair chance that, had I been born an only child like Chandler, I might have ended up similar to him were it not for people like you, Clyde, Rusty, Liam and Zach holding me back."

"…You cannot be serious," Ronnie Anne said, having trouble believing Lincoln's words.

"I am," Lincoln replied, showing that he was serious. Looking up a bit at the sky, Lincoln continued, "Chandler and I had more than a few things in common. The two of us weren't so different, Chandler and I." Sighing in a mildly resigned tone, Lincoln said, "Had things turned out differently, had Chandler not died, there's a chance that the two of us might have actually become friends. I mean, who knows?"

As Ronnie Anne proceeded to point out multiple things that in her opinion made the idea of Lincoln being friends with Chandler impossible, Carlota continued to listen to the conversation between the two eleven-year-olds. She was thinking about what the two kids were talking about, such as what Ronnie Anne said about Broken Mirror somehow being the person behind this Chandler kid's death; if what Ronnie Anne is saying about what kind of person Chandler was is all true, then Carlota could see Broken Mirror potentially going after such a kid. After all, Broken Mirror _did_ go after members of the violent youth gang back in Great Lakes City.

But that wasn't all that the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl was thinking about; she was also considering what Lincoln was saying as well, about how this Chandler kid, regardless of what he did, was still just a kid, and one apparently not all that different from Lincoln himself. Carlota also thought that it was sweet how Lincoln said, had things played out differently, that he could have even become friends with Chandler. The kindness, the empathy that the white-haired boy was showing, was enough to make the currently somber Carlota crack a smile, something of a rather rare occasion for her as of late. Carlota was glad that Lincoln was around.

She couldn't even begin to think of what things would be like if Lincoln wasn't.

END, SCARS OF THE BROKEN MIRROR: CARLOTA'S STORY CHAPTER THREE

Author's notes:

Yeah, Lincoln has done more for Carlota than she can ever begin to think. Even so, he's one of the few people or things to have made a positive impact on Carlota over the events of the past few months, and he's done that just by being himself (more or less). So seeing Lincoln being the kind of person Carlota has come to know him as is enough to make her feel just a little bit better.

Anyway, I'm aiming to try and wrap things up in the next chapter, not only putting Carlota's story to rest, but gearing up for the fourth and final addition to the 'Broken Mirror scars' anthology, whenever I'm able to get that out. I don't think that there will be a whole lot more left to explore when Carlota's story comes to an end, so from what I'm figuring I should finally be able to put the 'Broken Mirror scars' stories to a rest real soon.

I'm looking forward to what you guys who have stuck around since the beginning will have to say about the finale of 'Broken Mirror' and all his stories.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Scars of the Broken Mirror: Carlota's Story

Chapter four: At peace and moving on

The day following the Casagrande siblings being led by their Santiago cousins to meet the Loud siblings saw Carlota, her brothers Carl and Carlitos, and their cousins Bobby and Ronnie Anne eating breakfast with Maria, the mother of Bobby and Ronnie Anne and the aunt of Carlota and her brothers, plus Hector and Rosa, the grandparents of all five Santiago-Casagrande teens and children. The atmosphere of the family having breakfast was particularly excited, in a manner that was clearly excited in a good way.

"Your new store is going to open today, Grandpa Hector," Carl remarked after swallowing a mouthful of scrambled eggs, "You must be pretty excited!"

"You bet your keister I'm excited," Hector replied to his six-year-old grandson, "After all, it's my new store's grand opening!"

"Wait a minute, dad," Maria began, a look of mild confusion mixed with some curiosity on her face, "Do you even have enough employees to help you run the place?"

Gesturing to Bobby, Hector said, "I hired Bobby here to help man the register, and I've hired two more kids from his school into various other positions in the store. I myself will be leading the charge, so my new store has sufficient staff."

"Well hiring Bobby was a smart move," Maria remarked, "And I'm not just saying that because he's my son and your grandson. Bobby's worked quite a number of jobs, so he's clearly got the work experience needed to show he can be a good employee."

Hector nodded in agreement with Maria before going over a few things he had in mind to make his new store's grand opening a great occasion. As Hector talked business, Carlota thought about how things have been for her and her family over the past few months. About how she lost both her parents and one of her brothers, about how her grandfather lost his old store, about how they all had been forced to move out of the city in which Carlota was born and raised. Because of all of that, the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl thought that life was being cruel just to her.

…But ever since she, her remaining brothers and their grandparents moved to Royal Woods, Carlota saw that she was far from the only person to have been dealt a bad hand by the powers that be. There was the Louds, the family of Bobby's girlfriend Lori. The Loud girls had been given more than their fair share of troubles, with everything having started the day that their only brother, Lincoln, ran away from home, eventually winding up in Great Lakes City.

Now, there might be some people who would argue that the Loud girls brought everything that happened to them ever since Lincoln ran away from home onto themselves. But then again, if one took a good, long look at the list of every last misfortune that the Loud girls experienced in that time, they would see why others would make the argument that the Loud girls have been through more than what could ever be warranted, regardless of what they've done.

Their brother ran away because of their actions towards him, driving him to a city that was dangerous enough for a runaway eleven-year-old so that he could have gotten seriously hurt, if not worse. They lost their father in that massive accident on the main highway between Royal Woods and Great Lakes City. The second-oldest Loud girl being stripped of her ability to use her legs in said accident, requiring her to use a wheelchair to get around from here on out. There are many other things that the Loud girls have gone through ever since the day Lincoln ran away from home, from what Carlota had been able to gather, but the aforementioned listed items are what stand out he most by far.

As she thought about all of that business, Carlota thought that, compared to her, the Louds have had things significantly worse. And sure, they've cried on occasion because of everything; after all, who in their position _wouldn_'_t_ cry at some point after going through as much as all of that? Even so, despite everything that had been thrown at them, the Louds were eventually able to bounce back, to recover, and to stay as whole as they could.

…Could the same be said of Carlota?

Ever since her Grandpa Hector and Grandma Rosa told her and her brothers that they all were moving to Royal Woods to live with their extended relatives, Carlota had taken to keeping to herself. The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl thought that she had it bad enough; after all, she had lost both of her parents and one of her younger brothers. But then her grandparents had to go and drop such a massive bombshell as them moving to a completely different city, far away from the only life that she had ever known? How could anyone in Carlota's position _not_ brood as they kept to themselves for as long as possible?

And yet not only have people other than Carlota have had things worse than her, but they were able to return to as much normalcy as they could get, while Carlota herself has done nothing but essentially wallow in self-pity. Carlota has seen it, has recognized it, has watched people who were worse off than her bounce back, able to roll with the punches that life threw their way. After she reflected on all of that, Carlota had one question going through her mind.

…What right did she have to continue her pity party of one?

* * *

An hour or so after breakfast had been finished, Carlota, her brothers and Ronnie Anne all arrived at their grandfather's store, which was having its grand opening. Hector and Bobby went to the store ahead of time, as Hector was running the store and Bobby was working there. Carlota, along with the children, were amazed with what their grandfather had been able to do with the store, even though he hasn't had it for very long; it looked clean, the shelves and freezer cases were fully stocked, and various décor items that are typically used to celebrate store grand openings had been put up.

As Carlota and the kids expected, they saw their cousin/brother Bobby manning the register. However, the other two teens they saw working in their grandfather's store took the lot of them by surprise; one of them was a girl around Bobby and Carlota's age whose nametag identified her as Lori's rival-turned-friend Carol Pingrey, and the other girl Ronnie Anne recognized right away as Sam Sharp, the girlfriend of Lori and Lincoln's sister Luna; there was no mistaking that blonde hair with a streak of blue in it.

All three teens were wearing identical orange vests over whatever they had worn to work that day, no doubt that these vests were the uniform for store employees that Hector had picked out for people working for him to wear at the store. Both Carol and Sam had silver-colored nametags on the upper left sides of their vests, just above their breasts; Bobby's nametag, which was a golden color, was located in a similar position on his vest.

"Thank goodness Lori was able to put in a kind word for me when I looked into applying to work here," Carol remarked when Ronnie Anne and her cousins got to talk to her about how she came to work at their grandfather's new store, "I've been needing to find a new job ever since the place I used to work at went out of business."

"Where did you work at before here?" Carl asked, "If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"I used to work at a German-Korean fusion restaurant," Carol explained, "But it went out of business due to a mix of competition with other fusion restaurants in Royal Woods and being unable to afford monthly expenses." With a look of consideration on her face, Carol said, "Although to the German-Korean place's credit, it outlasted that Russian-Hawaiian place by a considerable amount."

"Oh, Luna's dad used to work at that Russian-Hawaiian place before it went out of business and he had to take a job at the Swedish-Japanese place that Amy's family owns," Sam remarked, "I know because Luna and some of her sisters told me because their dad threw a bit of a hissy fit prior to having to swallow his pride because his work went out of business."

Nodding twice in understanding, Carol said, "Yeah, I can't really hold the competition of the fusion places here in Royal Woods against them." To Carlota and the kids, Carol said, "Well anyway, Sam, Bobby and I ought to get to work. If you guys need help trying to find something in the store, let us know, alright?" Carlota and the kids nodded in understanding before they left Carol and the others to do their work.

…

Later, as Carlota and the kids browsed the shelves of their grandfather's new store, they heard the store's front door open, followed shortly by Bobby saying from where he stood at the register, "Lori! You made it!"

"Well it literally wouldn't do if I missed the store's grand opening, now would it Boo-Boo Bear?" Lori replied as she approached the front counter while Carlota and Ronnie Anne decided to go see what was going on; in addition to Lori, she had also brought Luna, Leni and Lincoln along to the store's grand opening.

"Yo Lunes, what do you think?" Sam asked Luna as she showed off how she looked while wearing her employee vest.

"Not bad at all," the musical Loud sibling replied, "But then again, I've always been one to admire a girl in uniform."

"I bet that you, your grandfather and the rest of your family had to do a lot of work to get the store ready for today, Bobby," Lincoln said as he looked up at his sister's boyfriend.

"Yeah, kind of, bro," Bobby admitted, "But then again, we had a fair amount of help from outside the family in regards to getting Grandpa Hector's store up and running. There's no forgetting how Lori and some of your sisters helped with driving out some raccoons that had taken shelter here prior to Grandpa Hector renting the place."

"I still say that Bobby should have gotten Astrid's older brother to use his Japanese longbow to kill the raccoons," Ronnie Anne remarked, shuddering slightly after she finished her comment.

Sighing in a mildly exasperated tone, Bobby said, "Nie-Nie, I don't know how many times I have to tell you this, but there's no way Aggro would have done it. He just doesn't seem to me like the kind of guy who would ever take a life."

"I…" Lincoln remarked, getting Ronnie Anne to turn to focus on him, "…Would have to agree with your brother, Ronnie Anne. He's got a point on how Aggro-sensei doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd ever kill anything or anyone."

With a mildly confused look on her face, Ronne Anne began, "Wait a minute, Lincoln. Did you just refer to Bobby's friend as sensei?"

"Oh yeah," Lori said as she began to explain, "That reminds me. Aggro has recently taken to tutoring Lincoln in Kendo. Mom thinks that it's a great way for Lincoln to learn discipline and respect, which she hopes will help him keep his mind off of what happened to dad, as well as get Lincoln some degree of exercise." Putting a hand on her hip, Lori continued, "I think that Aggro is also literally teaching Lincoln a few pointers on bits of various martial arts, because last night when Lynn was trying to roughhouse with him, Lincoln turned so that his back was to Lynn, he grabbed her right arm, picked her up over his shoulder and threw her over his shoulder so that she landed on the floor in front of him."

"Well after Leni told Aggro-sensei about some of what Lynn has done when she plays around with me and some of our sisters, he said that he figured that he ought to teach me a few things so that I could defend myself if Lynn ever tried anything like that again," Lincoln remarked, "And oddly enough, Lynn was surprisingly okay with the fact that I judo-threw her." With a look of consideration on his face, the sole Loud boy added, "In fact, I think that I may have earned some degree of respect from Lynn."

"Wait a minute, Lincoln," Ronnie Anne began, looking clearly impressed as well as a little shocked, "Did you just say that you judo-threw your sister?"

With a bit of a chuckle, Luna said, "Yeah, he totally did that, Ronnie Anne. And it was about damn time that someone gave Lynn a taste of her own medicine."

"It's not like I really wanted to," Lincoln remarked, sounding mildly ashamed as he rubbed the back of his head, "I mean, Lynn wanted to see some of what I learned from Aggro-sensei so far but I just wasn't in the mood to show her anything. Lynn just kind of forced the matter on me."

"Well Aggro _did_ say that you're only really supposed to use what he taught you in self-defense, Linky," Leni said, "And I'm, like, totes sure he'd agree with me when I say that Lynn forcing you into it would probably count as you being made to defend yourself."

The Loud girls and Lincoln proceeded to browse the store for a bit, to see what Hector was stocking. The girls found these chocolate cream-filled personal pies that were roughly the size of a pizza pocket. Given that they, as well as the rest of the Loud girls, all had a thing for chocolate, Lori, Leni and Luna bought some, while Lincoln got himself a bag of non-sour gummy worms. "Yeah, those chocolate pies are pretty bomb," Sam remarked as she rung up the Louds; Bobby had to go help Hector with something in the back room, leaving Sam to take care of things until he was able to come back.

After the Louds took their leave, Ronnie Anne turned to look up at Carlota as Carl and Carlitos came up to them from wherever it was in the store they were at. "Wow," Ronnie Anne remarked, "Lincoln actually beat Lynn. That's the first time that I've ever heard of anyone Lynn's age or younger actually beat her. I doubt that even I could take Lynn on in a straight-up one-on-one fight the way I am right now." Whistling in a tone that showed that the Hispanic tomboy was impressed, she continued, "I better take a note to never get on Lincoln's bad side."

"Relax, Nie-Nie," Bobby said in a casual tone, "There's no way that the bro would ever do anything like that to you. After all, he and you are both sweet on each other."

"Bobby!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed in an embarrassed tone, drawing some chuckling from the older Santiago sibling.

* * *

"…Yeah, I'd have to agree with Leni-chan on how her sister sort of forced Lincoln-kun to defend himself," Aggro said to Bobby later that day after Hector's new store closed for the day, its first day of business more than successful; the three oldest Ace siblings came by to see the Santiago-Casagrandes, with Amy carrying a basket of freshly-made baked goods made by Ace matriarch Ashe and sent to the Hispanic family as a show of friendship between two next-door neighbors. The teens and children were hanging in the dining room, where Aggro and Carl sat opposite of each other as they played a card game while everyone else watched.

"Yeah, and now Nie-Nie is worried that the bro will try to use some sort of karate death-grip on her, even though I told her that he'd never do that," Bobby remarked.

With an amused-sounding chuckle, Aggro turned to look up slightly at Ronnie Anne, who stood next to her younger cousin. "No need to worry, Ronnie Anne," the male Ace twin began, "I took the liberty of stressing to Lincoln-kun that what I'm teaching him should only be used in self-defense or in defense of someone else. Besides, he's a naturally kind person, so he would have naturally done what I was stressing to him anyway." With another chuckle, Aggro added, "Besides which, I haven't taught Lincoln any grip-type techniques."

"Sorry," Ronnie Anne remarked, sounding mildly embarrassed, "But after I heard that someone in my age group was actually able to beat Lincoln's sister Lynn, I got kind of worried."

As he moved some of his cards into his discard pile, Aggro said as he played a card from the small stack on his left, "I ought to talk to Leni-chan's mom about Lynn, then. I probably would have said that Lynn roughhousing with Lincoln and some of their sisters is her way to cope with the loss of her father and baby sister, but from what I've been told about it, Lynn has been acting in such a manner long since before that massive accident on the highway."

Bobby and Ronnie Anne both told Aggro that his assessment of Lynn was correct before everyone resumed hanging out and having fun. Aggro ended up winning against Carl, mostly due to the fact that Carl's deck is completely incapable of dealing with Aggro's Borrelguard Dragon. The two of them gathered their cards and got up so that Bobby and Ronnie Anne could play each other. As things went on, the atmosphere of the dining room became rather jovial, what with everyone casually conversing, watching a game, enjoying some snacks and sodas here and there, and so on and so forth.

As she watched everyone else enjoy themselves as they all hung out with each other, Carlota began to feel more and more at ease. The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl hadn't feel like she was in this good of a mood since before both her mother and younger brother were killed when violence erupted at that Hispanic Heritage festival back in Great Lakes City a few months back.

That day…that terrible day so long ago was the beginning of Carlota's downward spiral into sadness and depression, and a lot of what happened to Carlota over time only served to drive more and more nails into the metaphorical coffin. The seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl at first thought that everything that happened to her, to her family, was the worst series of events that could ever happen to anyone.

Then she met the Louds.

They drove their own brother to run away, she never acted in such a manner to any of her brothers. They lost their father but eventually bounced back as well as they could, she lost both parents and a brother but chose to wallow in self-pity for the longest time. Granted they weren't put on the spot of having to move like she was, but Carlota knew that the Louds would have adjusted better and quicker than she did.

And that wasn't all that Carlota was thinking about; the more that the seventeen-year-old Hispanic girl thought about things, the more she came to realize that the move was actually a good thing. Her family moving to Royal Woods took them from a city where they were scrutinized for their ethnicity, to a city where no such mass-discrimination existed. It took them from a place where her grandfather lost his business of many years to a place where he was able to start over and seemingly become better than before, showing in the process that even he was able to bounce back and roll with the punches better than her, his own granddaughter. It took them from a place where they had near no friends at all to a place where they were surrounded by good people who her family knew and who knew them back, people who would gladly have their back whenever need be.

Carlota knew that she would always be saddened by the unjust loss of her parents and one of her younger brothers; the loss of family would always be something of a sad occurrence, this much is true. However, Carlota reflected on how the unjust losses were brought to justice, how even when her, her family and others who shared their heritage in Great Lakes City were harassed, they still had friends on their side.

There would always be times where Carlota would feel as if everything was against her. But, just as she knew times like that would come up, Carlota also knew that she now had no shortage of people who would be there for her family, would be there for her. Carlota felt that things right now were the best for her that they have ever been, after everything had been taken into account and considered.

Her parents and one of her younger brothers, their unjust deaths avenged by the vigilante Broken Mirror, were at peace, having long since been laid to rest. Her grandparents and remaining younger brothers had adjusted to the move, having becoming fast friends with the locals of Royal Woods that they have come to know. Her grandfather was able to recover from the loss of his old store, starting up a new one that not only looked better than the old one ever did, but was slightly bigger as well. The fortunes for the Casagrandes had taken a turn for the best, and looked to stay that way from the looks of things. Hector, Rosa, Carl and Carlitos, although they themselves were also shaken by the losses that they've suffered in recent events, had been able to move on, and had been able to become at peace with themselves.

Carlota, with a bit of a considering smirk on her face, figured that she ought to start following their examples.

END, SCARS OF THE BROKEN MIRROR: CARLOTA'S STORY

Author's notes:

And with that, Carlota's story has come to a close. I wanted to end things here on something of a hopeful note, with the idea that although not every single last issue of business was fixed, they were well on their way of getting there. For those of you who have stuck around since the beginning of not just this story but from every 'Broken Mirror' story since the original one, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you.

I will always be grateful to 'Broken Mirror', as well as the various stories in its 'New War' branch. Those stories allowed me to explore so much, as well as provide me with the opportunity to talk to so many people here on the site. I _might_ even do a little side story that sees various things from Lincoln's perspective during the events of 'Kara's story', 'Aggro's story' and 'Carlota's story', when all is said and done.

However, that's only provided that I see enough support for such a tale, and even then I may not actually have the time what with all that I have on my plate already. If not, then I'll proceed to work on some of the aforementioned ideas. After all, if you'll recall, the star of the Broken Mirror stories, the former child vigilante himself, has yet to see what his family will do in this setting to reconcile with him. Well fortunately for you all, I deliver on my promises (or at least try to). Keep an eye out for 'Scars of the Broken Mirror: Lincoln's Story' in the coming times.

Lincoln will get his story. One way or another.


End file.
